33 Louisiana state Republican lawmakers signed a letter urging Governor John Bel Edwards to join Texas and Mississippi in dropping the mask mandate.
Governor Edwards has indicated the mandate will likely be one of the last public health orders to go but House GOP Caucus Chairman Blake Miguez said it is no longer necessary.
“It is time for government to trust business owners, their employees, and their clients on how to keep their businesses and families safe. Allow them to make those decisions on their own,” said Miguez.
Texas’s mask mandate will go away next Wednesday. 15 states currently have no mandate.
Miguez said the mandate leads to nonsensical situations wherein people wear a mask into a restaurant, sit down to eat, take it off, then put it back on to leave.
“I would encourage the Governor to start using common sense, let’s get this economy open and get people’s lives back to normal,” said Miguez.
Miguez said by failing to join our neighbors in loosening restrictions we risk further impeding the state’s economic recovery.
“They were already ahead of us in their economies prior to the COVID pandemic because Louisiana is ranked at the very bottom. Louisiana cannot afford to wait any longer,” said Miguez.
At his Tuesday press conference, Governor Edwards said while the state is likely to continue reducing capacity restrictions the mask mandate will remain in place because it has no negative economic impacts and has been proven to significantly reduce the spread of coronavirus.
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